Note 43 — Front matter (continued 2)

(page page 60).—This portage was the one used by Joliet and Marquette in their expedition towards the Mississippi in 1673, and thereafter persistently followed as one of the chief pathways to the Mississippi, by French, English, and Americans in turn, until the decline of the fur trade, about 1840. A government canal now connects the two rivers at this point; but it is seldom used, for the upper Fox is very shallow, and the Wisconsin is beset with shifting sandbars, so that few steam craft can now successfully navigate these waters, except at seasons of flood.